Arkansas inmates hit roadblocks in bid to stop executions

Arkansas inmates hit roadblocks in bid to stop executions

Galeno Paniagua
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21 Abril, 2017, 18:13

Arkansas dropped plans to execute a second inmate, Stacey Johnson, on the same day after the state Supreme Court said it wouldn't reconsider his stay, which was issued so Johnson could seek more DNA tests in hopes of proving his innocence.

Arkansas Attorney General Leslie Rutledge commented on the execution, calling it "lawful".

The first, a ruling from the Arkansas Supreme Court on Wednesday, granted a stay of execution to prisoner Stacey Johnson, who is scheduled to die tonight. It was the first execution in Arkansas since 2005. In federal court, Lee said a string of incompetent lawyers failed to make the case that he is intellectually disabled and thus ineligible to be executed. Johnson's attorney, Jeff Rosenzweig, wants a court to order new DNA testing on hair found in the victim's apartment and on clothing that prosecutors found at a rest stop and linked to Johnson.

The possibility that justices could continue sparing the lives of the remaining killers scheduled to die this month has left death penalty supporters including Republican Gov. Asa Hutchinson frustrated and critical of the high court. McKesson argued that its use in lethal injections is prohibited under its "supplied agreement", adding that the corrections officer did not say it would be used in executions.

Arkansas inmates hit roadblocks in bid to stop executions

"Apparently the reason the state chose to proceed with these eight executions is that the "use by" date of the state's execution drug is about to expire..." But Arkansas has faced a wave of legal challenges.

According to court documents, the ADC acquired the drug under false pretense, telling McKesson that it would strictly be used for medical purposes. Johnson's lawyers say that the child's testimony has been proven unreliable by experts and that his execution should be put on hold to allow for new DNA testing, the kind of which was unavailable in 1993 when Johnson was on trial.

But unlike the earlier decisions, this stay came from a court that had shifted to the right in recent elections.

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The judge facing re-election, Courtney Goodson, lost her bid for chief justice past year after conservative groups blanketed the state with ads attacking her. As state officials prepare to carry out a double execution Thursday ahead of a drug expiration deadline and despite the setback the U.S. Supreme Court delivered late Monday, lawyers for those condemned men look to be taking a different approach: claiming the prisoners are actually innocent.

Bruce Ward and Don Davis, who were to be executed Monday night, won stays from the Arkansas Supreme Court and the state appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court in the case of Davis but not Ward.

Four of the eight inmates originally on Hutchinson's schedule have now received stays of execution.

In her order, U.S. District Judge Kristine Baker flagged two issues: the use of the midazolam and inmates' access to their attorneys on the days of their executions.

Circuit Judge Alice Gray on Wednesday ordered the state to not use one of its execution drugs in executions set for Thursday night and next week. The state concedes the pair will not be put to death this month. In that order, the state Supreme Court did not elaborate on its reasoning.

That leaves five men set for execution in an eight-day period starting Thursday.

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